An estimated 8,000 visitors strolled through Jim Thorpe yesterday and Saturday taking in a variety of events and creating an air of excitement in the picturesque borough where the first Laurel Festival of the Arts begins today.

All is in readiness for the two-week celebration of music, crafts, arts and poetry that will start with a performance by the Singing Boys of Pennsylvania at 10 a.m. today in the Mauch Chunk Opera House on West Broadway.

FOR THE RECORD - FOR THE RECOED - (Published Tuesday, June 12, 1990) Yesterday's story of the first Laurel Festival of the Arts, Jim Thorpe, incorrectly announced a special crafts show and demonstration to take place Saturday and Sunday. The craft show, involving nearly 40 artisans, will be held June 23-24. The show will be held at Kemmerer Park, opposite the Asa Packer Mansion, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. June 23 and noon-6 p.m. June 24. Several of the artisans will offer demonstrations. There is an admission charge to help fund the arts festival. For information, call 717-325-3929.

Crowds yesterday and Saturday were in a festive spirit and created some traffic jams.

Attracting tourists were a Jim Thorpe house tour program yesterday, sponsored by the Mauch Chunk Historical Society, and a Carbon County Art Show in the opera house on Saturday and yesterday, sponsored by the Jim Thorpe Rotary Club with the help of the Carbon County Art League.

There were train rides as part of the final days of observing the Laurel Blossom Festival.

Agnes McCartney, director of the Pocono Mountain Vacation Bureau, located in the Jim Thorpe rail station, said, "The blossom festival has been going on for 75 years and is geared to attracting people to the beauty of the laurel, the state flower in Pennsylvania, and the beauty of the mountains and woodlands in this area."

Two sturdy Belgian horses pulled tourists around town on a hay ride in a trolley car, visitors tapped their feet while sitting on park benches listening to the lively music of the Perseverance Jazz Band from the Lehigh Valley, and others browsed in tiny shops on Race Street and Broadway.

Meanwhile, organizers reported that the Laurel Festival of the Arts which gets under way today will begin and end with choral concerts.

The Singing Boys, from East Stroudsburg, will entertain an audience of mostly school children today while the Bach-Handel Chorale of Jim Thorpe will sing June 24 at the opera house.

Marc Mostovoy, organizer of the music-oriented event, could not give an estimate yesterday of tickets sold for the festival.

"It's hard to get an idea of pre-sales figures for an event like this," he said. "But from the number of telephone calls and inquiries we sense there is a lot of interest and we're very enthused."

Herb Thompson and Ed Moran, co-chairman of publicity for the festival, agreed.

"Everything is in place and all of the performing artists and guest musicians are expected to arrive by tomorrow evening," Mostovoy said.

"As for any last minute problems that are usually part of a festival like this, well, there just haven't been any and I think that is because the people here are so giving," said Mostovoy

"As you know, over 100 people in this community have been working on committees for more than a year getting ready for this," he explained. "The wonderful people here are what makes this town so special, with their open house attitude, the art galleries, shops and old churches."

Moran is the coordinator for poetry readings this Saturday by famous personages who will be coming to the festival.

He was excited yesterday about introducing these celebrities to the community and vice versa.

These will include Theodore and Renee Karol Weiss, editors of the Quarterly Review of Literature; Grace Schulman, poetry editor of the The Nation, and Soichi Furauta, a nominee for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Thompson was busy yesterday with planning details for other aspects of the event and in churning out press releases.

A change he reported is that Kathryn Greenbank, principal oboist, of the St. Paul, Minn., Chamber Orchestra, will be unable to attend the festival and will replaced by Susan Laney, principal oboist of the Spokane, Wash., Symphony.

"The centerpiece will be a series of four chamber music concerts at the Mauch Chunk Opera House thisFriday, Saturday and Sunday," he said.

A special crafts show and demonstration will also take place this Saturday and Sunday, he said.

Mostovoy, founder and conductor of Philadelphia's Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra, reiterated that visiting artists and musicians will perform gratis and will be lodged in private homes in Jim Thorpe.

During the festival there will be rehearsals at the opera house from 10 a.m. to noon, except when other events may be scheduled, and the practice sessions will be open to the public without charge, Thompson said.

In addition to the four chamber music concerts this weekend, a separate group of classical musicians will perform by invitation in four individual concerts from June 22-24.

Concerts for both weekends will cost $10 for each ticket.

There will also be seven free concerts weeknights in Jim Thorpe area churches, featuring leading organists, instrumentalists and vocalists from the Lehigh Valley and from northeastern Pennsylvania.

Historic brass bands from Lehighton and Macungie will perform outdoor concerts from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. June 17 and June 24, both Sundays.

Jim Thorpe art galleries will feature recent works of eight area artists throughout the two-week festival.